Monday, September 15, 2014

You may have seen this before in my post about Emusoi. I cannot help sharingit again. It's my favorite of the whole trip!

Regular readers of MIE are aware that I have been
traveling—to Kenya, Tanzania, and London—a trip that did important things to my
heart, things that I do not yet fully understand.They feel profound and positive and I am
grateful for them.

The physical items that came home in my suitcase (in
addition to the mountain of laundry) are easier to present.Here they are:

The souvenir catalogue of the Karen Blixen Museum, replete with photos thatwill be boon as I work to describe home interiors, clothing, and characters.

James Wilson's book. He was the brilliant leader of our tour ofthe battlefields. Three of my Tolliver books will take place duringthe war.

A gift for my grandchildren from Shel Arensen, author of children's books aboutAfrica. He is also the editor and publisher of Old Africa Magazine and the organizerof the tour we took. His invitation to join the expedition inspired this trip to Africa.

A Maasai necklace, a gift for my daughter, who dispelled my doubts about

going this trip alone.

Something to join all my little souvenirs on the bookshelves over my computer.This little guy is made of slices of a flattened beer can. And red--the Maasai color.

A detail of my highly-prized copy of a 1910 map. From the collection of theBritish Library, it is the earliest indication of the street layout of the burgeoningtown of Nairobi.

I brought home about 750 photos, some of which you have
already seen, and about twenty short films.One of the latter is of ostriches mating that reads like a post-modern
love story.I am not at all sure what I
will do with that.But the images of my
trip are all now safely downloaded and await further study.

What I also took home are ideas—embryonic plots for two
World War I novels—numbers 6 and 7 of my series, and many images that I know will make
it into my narratives.

I came home with fresh eyes to see what I thought was a finished
manuscript for Tolliver #2.I have
already taken apart its first four chapters, resequenced the events, and added
a new plot thread.It’s going to be a
far better book than it otherwise would have been.

Recreation is supposed to give us renewal.My tanks—which life events had depleted of
late—are recharged.

:-) There was a period of a few years when, every time my wife would come home from town, our son would ask her, "Did you get me anything?" That lasted until it turned into a joke, and then it ended when the joke became stale (or maybe he was just growing up?)

Stan, you know full well that my infatuation with Africa was already present in every quark in my body. In fact, I have decided that if aliens who look human but aren't ever invade the planet, we will be able to differentiate them from real humans, by taking them into the African bush. If their bodies don't respond to it on a cellular level, we will know they are not true descendants of the creatures that evolved there.